New Jumanji sequel cast and plot details confirm video game setting

If you follow our #TheMoviesExtras posts on Twitter and Facebook, you would know that we got our first look at the principal cast of the upcoming Jumanji sequel last week, thanks to Kevin Hart’s Instagram account. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson leads the family fantasy adventure and joins Hart, Karen Gillan and Jack Black in the follow up to much beloved 1996 Robin Williams flick.

Besides for Johnson’s previously revealed Dr. Smolder Bravestone and this one pic, we didn’t know much about who these actors would be playing though. But some new casting news has come to light that actually shares quite a few plot details confirming some earlier rumours about the film. Johnson himself broke the news welcoming “Jumanji juniors” Madison Iseman, Ser’Darius Blain, Alex Wolff and Morgan Turner have joined the production, and while none of these actors are even remotely close to star power of the above four, the movie will actually see them sharing a unique bond.

Mashable’s Jeff Snider tweeted that the four youngsters will in fact be playing high school kids who end up in detention together, where they stumble across a video game version of Jumanji and decide to play. And much like Williams’ Alan Parrish in the first movie, end up getting sucked into and stuck in the game world of Jumanji, where they have to find some mysterious jewel to get them out.

But while the original film’s game was the classic dice board game, this new version is electronic. Players have to choose a virtual avatar to represent themselves in this digital world, and ComingSoon reports for the four kids chooses Hart’s Moose Finbar, Johnson’s Dr. Bravestone, Gillan’s Ruby Roundhouse and Black’s Professor Shelly Oberon. THR has confirmed that Blain will fact be using Johnson’s Dr. Bravestone as his avatar, but there’s been no confirmation about the rest. However, if the order that Johnson revealed the new cast lines up with the order that him and the other four headline actors appear in the pic above, it would mean that besides for Blain’s character, all the other youngsters are actually using avatars of the opposite gender. I know lots of gamers that always do the same, but I don’t think I’ve seen this portrayed in a movie before.

There had also previously been some concerns raised about the costumes of the main cast, as they appeared to be nothing more than amalgamations of different popular video game and pop culture characters as well as the particularly tiny and very jungle-inappropriate ensemble worn by Gillan. The actress has promised at the time that there was a very good reason for the outfits and with these new plot details it actually makes complete sense. If you’ve ever played an online video game, that is.